README.md

Introduction

lzbench is an in-memory benchmarking tool for open-source compressors. It integrates all compressors into a single executable. Initially, an input file is loaded into memory, after which each compressor is used to compress and decompress the file, ensuring the decompressed output matches the original. This method provides the advantage of compiling all compressors with the same compiler and optimizations. However, it requires access to the source code of each compressor, meaning e.g. Slug and lzturbo are not included.

Status

The list of changes in lzbench is available in the CHANGELOG.

Contributor information can be found in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Usage

usage: lzbench [options] input [input2] [input3]

For example:
  lzbench -ezstd filename = selects all levels of zstd
  lzbench -ebrotli,2,5/zstd filename = selects levels 2 & 5 of brotli and zstd
  lzbench -t3,5 fname = 3 sec compression and 5 sec decompression loops
  lzbench -t0,0 -i3,5 fname = 3 compression and 5 decompression iterations
  lzbench -o1c4 fname = output markdown format and sort by 4th column
  lzbench -ezlib -j -r dirname/ = test zlib on all files in directory, recursively

For complete list of options refer to manual in doc directory which contains more detailed documentation.

Building

To compile, you need a C and C++ compiler that is GNUC-compatible, such as GCC, LLVM/Clang, or ICC. It is recommended to use GCC 7.1+ or Clang 6.0+.

For Linux/MacOS/MinGW (Windows):

make -j$(nproc)

The default linking for Linux is dynamic and static for Windows. This can be changed with make BUILD_STATIC=0/1.

For complete building instruction, with troubleshooting refer to BUILD.md.

Supported compressors

• brieflz 1.3.0
• brotli 1.2.0
• bsc 3.3.11
• bzip2 1.0.8
• bzip3 1.5.2
• crush 1.0
• density 0.16.6
• fastlz 0.5.0
• fast-lzma2 1.0.1
• glza 0.12
• kanzi 2.5.1
• libdeflate v1.24
• lizard v2.1
• lz4/lz4hc v1.10.0
• lzav 5.7
• lzf 3.6
• lzfse/lzvn 1.0
• lzg 1.0.10
• lzham 1.0
• lzjb 2010
• lzlib 1.15
• lzma v25.01
• lzo 2.10
• lzsse 2019-04-18 (1847c3e827)
• memlz 0.2 beta
• nvcomp 2.2.0 - if CUDA is available
• ppmd8 25.01
• quicklz to 1.5.1 beta 7
• slz 1.2.1 - only a compressor, uses zlib for decompression
• snappy 1.2.2
• tamp 2.1.0
• tornado 0.6a
• ucl 1.03
• xz 5.8.1
• zlib 1.3.1
• zlib-ng 2.2.5
• zling 2018-10-12 - according to the author using libzling in a production environment is not a good idea
• zpaq 7.15
• zstd 1.5.7
• zxc 0.10.0

Warning: The compressors listed below have security issues and/or are no longer maintained. For information about the security of the various compressors, see the CompFuzz Results page.

• csc 2016-10-13: May cause a segmentation fault when compiled with Apple LLVM version 7.3.0 (clang-703.0.31).
• gipfeli 2016-07-13: Contains bugs causing decompression file mismatch when compiled with GCC 14.2 using -O3.
• lzmat 1.01 v1.0: Contains decompression bugs and may cause a segmentation fault when compiled with GCC 4.9+ using -O3 optimization.
• lzrw 15-Jul-1991: May trigger a segmentation fault when compiled with GCC 4.9+ using -O3.
• wflz 2015-09-16: May result in a segmentation fault when compiled with GCC 4.9+ using -O3.
• yalz77 2022-07-06: A segmentation fault was encountered with GCC 13.3.0 on a 32-bit ARM (arm-linux-gnueabi) target.
• yappy 2014-03-22: A segmentation fault was observed with GCC 13.3.0 on a 32-bit ARM (arm-linux-gnueabi) system.

Benchmarks

The following results were obtained using lzbench 2.0.1, built with gcc 14.2.0 and executed with the options -eALL -t8,8 -o1c4. The tests were run on a single thread of an AMD EPYC 9554 processor at 3.10 GHz, with the CPU governor set to performance and turbo boost disabled for stability. The operating system was Ubuntu 24.04.1, and the benchmark made use of silesia.tar, which contains tarred files from the Silesia compression corpus.

The results sorted by ratio are available here.

Compressor name	Compression	Decompress.	Compr. size	Ratio
memcpy	16332 MB/s	16362 MB/s	211947520	100.00
brieflz 1.3.0 -1	199 MB/s	354 MB/s	81138803	38.28
brieflz 1.3.0 -3	132 MB/s	364 MB/s	75550736	35.65
brieflz 1.3.0 -6	21.0 MB/s	395 MB/s	67208420	31.71
brieflz 1.3.0 -8	2.84 MB/s	419 MB/s	64531718	30.45
brotli 1.1.0 -0	341 MB/s	352 MB/s	78433298	37.01
brotli 1.1.0 -2	140 MB/s	413 MB/s	68069489	32.12
brotli 1.1.0 -5	37.1 MB/s	451 MB/s	59555446	28.10
brotli 1.1.0 -8	12.3 MB/s	477 MB/s	57148304	26.96
brotli 1.1.0 -11	0.58 MB/s	389 MB/s	50407795	23.78
bsc 3.3.5 -m0 -e1	16.6 MB/s	24.1 MB/s	49143366	23.19
bsc 3.3.5 -m4 -e1	31.2 MB/s	14.3 MB/s	50626974	23.89
bsc 3.3.5 -m5 -e1	28.8 MB/s	13.3 MB/s	49522504	23.37
bzip2 1.0.8 -1	14.8 MB/s	46.6 MB/s	60484813	28.54
bzip2 1.0.8 -5	14.0 MB/s	40.0 MB/s	55724395	26.29
bzip2 1.0.8 -9	13.1 MB/s	37.5 MB/s	54572811	25.75
crush 1.0 -0	64.3 MB/s	357 MB/s	73064603	34.47
crush 1.0 -1	6.95 MB/s	407 MB/s	66494412	31.37
crush 1.0 -2	0.91 MB/s	421 MB/s	63746223	30.08
fastlz 0.5.0 -1	285 MB/s	710 MB/s	104628084	49.37
fastlz 0.5.0 -2	293 MB/s	699 MB/s	100906072	47.61
fastlzma2 1.0.1 -1	21.9 MB/s	75.8 MB/s	59030950	27.85
fastlzma2 1.0.1 -3	12.1 MB/s	81.4 MB/s	54023833	25.49
fastlzma2 1.0.1 -5	7.31 MB/s	87.6 MB/s	51209567	24.16
fastlzma2 1.0.1 -8	4.46 MB/s	89.7 MB/s	49126736	23.18
fastlzma2 1.0.1 -10	3.31 MB/s	90.2 MB/s	48666061	22.96
kanzi 2.3 -2	155 MB/s	432 MB/s	68264304	32.21
kanzi 2.3 -3	106 MB/s	321 MB/s	64963864	30.65
kanzi 2.3 -4	53.7 MB/s	152 MB/s	60767201	28.67
kanzi 2.3 -5	21.0 MB/s	50.3 MB/s	54050463	25.50
kanzi 2.3 -6	15.8 MB/s	29.6 MB/s	49517568	23.36
kanzi 2.3 -7	10.2 MB/s	15.2 MB/s	47308205	22.32
kanzi 2.3 -8	3.45 MB/s	3.29 MB/s	43247149	20.40
kanzi 2.3 -9	2.44 MB/s	2.35 MB/s	41807652	19.73
libdeflate 1.23 -1	207 MB/s	860 MB/s	73502791	34.68
libdeflate 1.23 -3	136 MB/s	895 MB/s	70170816	33.11
libdeflate 1.23 -6	84.3 MB/s	912 MB/s	67510615	31.85
libdeflate 1.23 -9	28.5 MB/s	904 MB/s	66715751	31.48
libdeflate 1.23 -12	5.14 MB/s	919 MB/s	64678723	30.52
lizard 2.1 -10	482 MB/s	2172 MB/s	103402971	48.79
lizard 2.1 -12	165 MB/s	2014 MB/s	86232422	40.69
lizard 2.1 -15	77.9 MB/s	2119 MB/s	81187330	38.31
lizard 2.1 -19	4.74 MB/s	1999 MB/s	77416400	36.53
lizard 2.1 -20	387 MB/s	1688 MB/s	96924204	45.73
lizard 2.1 -22	162 MB/s	1721 MB/s	84866725	40.04
lizard 2.1 -25	21.9 MB/s	1750 MB/s	75131286	35.45
lizard 2.1 -29	2.10 MB/s	1819 MB/s	68694227	32.41
lizard 2.1 -30	363 MB/s	1187 MB/s	85727429	40.45
lizard 2.1 -32	164 MB/s	1276 MB/s	78652654	37.11
lizard 2.1 -35	85.4 MB/s	1548 MB/s	74563583	35.18
lizard 2.1 -39	4.52 MB/s	1515 MB/s	69807522	32.94
lizard 2.1 -40	297 MB/s	1150 MB/s	80843049	38.14
lizard 2.1 -42	141 MB/s	1235 MB/s	73350988	34.61
lizard 2.1 -45	21.6 MB/s	1350 MB/s	66676653	31.46
lizard 2.1 -49	2.06 MB/s	1325 MB/s	60679215	28.63
lz4fast 1.10.0 -17	1002 MB/s	4166 MB/s	131732802	62.15
lz4fast 1.10.0 -9	820 MB/s	3922 MB/s	120130796	56.68
lz4fast 1.10.0 -3	657 MB/s	3744 MB/s	107066190	50.52
lz4 1.10.0	577 MB/s	3716 MB/s	100880800	47.60
lz4hc 1.10.0 -1	262 MB/s	3221 MB/s	89135429	42.06
lz4hc 1.10.0 -4	76.3 MB/s	3421 MB/s	79807909	37.65
lz4hc 1.10.0 -9	30.9 MB/s	3527 MB/s	77884448	36.75
lz4hc 1.10.0 -12	10.5 MB/s	3616 MB/s	77262620	36.45
lzav 4.5 -1	385 MB/s	2643 MB/s	86497609	40.81
lzav 4.5 -2	74.1 MB/s	2574 MB/s	75602661	35.67
lzf 3.6 -0	339 MB/s	625 MB/s	105682088	49.86
lzf 3.6 -1	339 MB/s	637 MB/s	102041092	48.14
lzfse 2017-03-08	81.3 MB/s	724 MB/s	67624281	31.91
lzg 1.0.10 -1	85.9 MB/s	524 MB/s	108553667	51.22
lzg 1.0.10 -4	47.8 MB/s	528 MB/s	95930551	45.26
lzg 1.0.10 -6	28.6 MB/s	562 MB/s	89490220	42.22
lzg 1.0.10 -8	8.97 MB/s	611 MB/s	83606901	39.45
lzham 1.0 -d26 -0	11.7 MB/s	233 MB/s	64089870	30.24
lzham 1.0 -d26 -1	3.08 MB/s	309 MB/s	54740589	25.83
lzlib 1.15 -0	34.1 MB/s	58.6 MB/s	63847386	30.12
lzlib 1.15 -3	7.69 MB/s	66.9 MB/s	56320674	26.57
lzlib 1.15 -6	2.91 MB/s	72.0 MB/s	49777495	23.49
lzlib 1.15 -9	1.81 MB/s	72.5 MB/s	48296889	22.79
lzma 24.09 -0	31.0 MB/s	74.1 MB/s	60509826	28.55
lzma 24.09 -2	22.4 MB/s	83.1 MB/s	57072498	26.93
lzma 24.09 -4	12.6 MB/s	85.6 MB/s	55926363	26.39
lzma 24.09 -6	4.86 MB/s	91.5 MB/s	49544915	23.38
lzma 24.09 -9	4.01 MB/s	93.0 MB/s	48674973	22.97
lzo1 2.10 -1	236 MB/s	647 MB/s	106474519	50.24
lzo1 2.10 -99	106 MB/s	682 MB/s	94946129	44.80
lzo1a 2.10 -1	234 MB/s	696 MB/s	104202251	49.16
lzo1a 2.10 -99	106 MB/s	722 MB/s	92666265	43.72
lzo1b 2.10 -1	201 MB/s	642 MB/s	97036087	45.78
lzo1b 2.10 -3	206 MB/s	658 MB/s	94044578	44.37
lzo1b 2.10 -6	205 MB/s	659 MB/s	91382355	43.12
lzo1b 2.10 -9	158 MB/s	655 MB/s	89261884	42.12
lzo1b 2.10 -99	104 MB/s	664 MB/s	85653376	40.41
lzo1b 2.10 -999	13.4 MB/s	752 MB/s	76594292	36.14
lzo1c 2.10 -1	209 MB/s	671 MB/s	99550904	46.97
lzo1c 2.10 -3	207 MB/s	685 MB/s	96716153	45.63
lzo1c 2.10 -6	173 MB/s	681 MB/s	93303623	44.02
lzo1c 2.10 -9	141 MB/s	676 MB/s	91040386	42.95
lzo1c 2.10 -99	102 MB/s	682 MB/s	88112288	41.57
lzo1c 2.10 -999	20.7 MB/s	726 MB/s	80396741	37.93
lzo1f 2.10 -1	185 MB/s	633 MB/s	99743329	47.06
lzo1f 2.10 -999	18.9 MB/s	656 MB/s	80890206	38.17
lzo1x 2.10 -1	513 MB/s	696 MB/s	100572537	47.45
lzo1x 2.10 -11	560 MB/s	710 MB/s	106604629	50.30
lzo1x 2.10 -12	545 MB/s	695 MB/s	103238859	48.71
lzo1x 2.10 -15	532 MB/s	694 MB/s	101462094	47.87
lzo1x 2.10 -999	7.13 MB/s	658 MB/s	75301903	35.53
lzo1y 2.10 -1	514 MB/s	689 MB/s	101258318	47.78
lzo1y 2.10 -999	7.37 MB/s	647 MB/s	75503849	35.62
lzo1z 2.10 -999	7.22 MB/s	643 MB/s	75061331	35.42
lzo2a 2.10 -999	23.8 MB/s	531 MB/s	82809337	39.07
lzsse2 2019-04-18 -1	19.0 MB/s	3286 MB/s	87976095	41.51
lzsse2 2019-04-18 -6	8.18 MB/s	3786 MB/s	75837101	35.78
lzsse2 2019-04-18 -12	7.97 MB/s	3790 MB/s	75829973	35.78
lzsse2 2019-04-18 -16	8.00 MB/s	3788 MB/s	75829973	35.78
lzsse4 2019-04-18 -1	17.8 MB/s	4209 MB/s	82542106	38.94
lzsse4 2019-04-18 -6	9.10 MB/s	4598 MB/s	76118298	35.91
lzsse4 2019-04-18 -12	8.89 MB/s	4611 MB/s	76113017	35.91
lzsse4 2019-04-18 -16	8.90 MB/s	4611 MB/s	76113017	35.91
lzsse8 2019-04-18 -1	16.4 MB/s	4340 MB/s	81866245	38.63
lzsse8 2019-04-18 -6	8.70 MB/s	4752 MB/s	75469717	35.61
lzsse8 2019-04-18 -12	8.53 MB/s	4761 MB/s	75464339	35.61
lzsse8 2019-04-18 -16	8.52 MB/s	4755 MB/s	75464339	35.61
lzvn 2017-03-08	69.3 MB/s	884 MB/s	80814609	38.13
ppmd8 24.09 -4	13.2 MB/s	12.0 MB/s	51241932	24.18
quicklz 1.5.0 -1	459 MB/s	491 MB/s	94720562	44.69
quicklz 1.5.0 -2	223 MB/s	485 MB/s	84555627	39.89
quicklz 1.5.0 -3	60.2 MB/s	835 MB/s	81822241	38.60
slz_gzip 1.2.1 -1	310 MB/s	354 MB/s	99657946	47.02
slz_gzip 1.2.1 -2	303 MB/s	356 MB/s	96863082	45.70
slz_gzip 1.2.1 -3	297 MB/s	357 MB/s	96187768	45.38
snappy 1.2.1	401 MB/s	1077 MB/s	101415443	47.85
tornado 0.6a -1	351 MB/s	499 MB/s	107381846	50.66
tornado 0.6a -2	298 MB/s	458 MB/s	90076660	42.50
tornado 0.6a -3	185 MB/s	283 MB/s	72662044	34.28
tornado 0.6a -4	154 MB/s	296 MB/s	70513617	33.27
tornado 0.6a -5	70.9 MB/s	232 MB/s	64129604	30.26
tornado 0.6a -6	45.6 MB/s	230 MB/s	62364583	29.42
tornado 0.6a -7	16.9 MB/s	223 MB/s	59026325	27.85
tornado 0.6a -10	5.58 MB/s	228 MB/s	57588241	27.17
tornado 0.6a -13	5.42 MB/s	243 MB/s	55614072	26.24
tornado 0.6a -16	2.32 MB/s	255 MB/s	53257046	25.13
ucl_nrv2b 1.03 -1	48.5 MB/s	290 MB/s	81703168	38.55
ucl_nrv2b 1.03 -6	18.2 MB/s	332 MB/s	73902185	34.87
ucl_nrv2b 1.03 -9	2.05 MB/s	363 MB/s	71031195	33.51
ucl_nrv2d 1.03 -1	48.8 MB/s	293 MB/s	81461976	38.43
ucl_nrv2d 1.03 -6	18.1 MB/s	333 MB/s	73757673	34.80
ucl_nrv2d 1.03 -9	2.06 MB/s	364 MB/s	70053895	33.05
ucl_nrv2e 1.03 -1	49.0 MB/s	297 MB/s	81195560	38.31
ucl_nrv2e 1.03 -6	18.1 MB/s	342 MB/s	73302012	34.58
ucl_nrv2e 1.03 -9	2.06 MB/s	372 MB/s	69645134	32.86
xz 5.6.3 -0	23.6 MB/s	98.2 MB/s	62579435	29.53
xz 5.6.3 -3	7.52 MB/s	122 MB/s	55745125	26.30
xz 5.6.3 -6	2.97 MB/s	127 MB/s	49195929	23.21
xz 5.6.3 -9	2.57 MB/s	123 MB/s	48745306	23.00
zlib 1.3.1 -1	93.0 MB/s	323 MB/s	77259029	36.45
zlib 1.3.1 -6	25.3 MB/s	344 MB/s	68228431	32.19
zlib 1.3.1 -9	10.3 MB/s	348 MB/s	67644548	31.92
zlib-ng 2.2.3 -1	202 MB/s	471 MB/s	94127047	44.41
zlib-ng 2.2.3 -6	62.1 MB/s	509 MB/s	68861129	32.49
zlib-ng 2.2.3 -9	24.6 MB/s	518 MB/s	67582060	31.89
zling 2018-10-12 -0	78.5 MB/s	178 MB/s	62990590	29.72
zling 2018-10-12 -1	70.0 MB/s	182 MB/s	62022546	29.26
zling 2018-10-12 -2	63.1 MB/s	184 MB/s	61503093	29.02
zling 2018-10-12 -3	56.6 MB/s	186 MB/s	60999828	28.78
zling 2018-10-12 -4	47.9 MB/s	187 MB/s	60626768	28.60
zstd_fast 1.5.6 --5	573 MB/s	1950 MB/s	103093752	48.64
zstd_fast 1.5.6 --3	518 MB/s	1822 MB/s	94674672	44.67
zstd_fast 1.5.6 --1	459 MB/s	1717 MB/s	86984009	41.04
zstd 1.5.6 -1	422 MB/s	1347 MB/s	73421914	34.64
zstd 1.5.6 -2	344 MB/s	1246 MB/s	69503444	32.79
zstd 1.5.6 -5	125 MB/s	1197 MB/s	63040310	29.74
zstd 1.5.6 -8	62.9 MB/s	1319 MB/s	60015064	28.32
zstd 1.5.6 -11	34.4 MB/s	1332 MB/s	58262299	27.49
zstd 1.5.6 -15	8.36 MB/s	1369 MB/s	57168834	26.97
zstd 1.5.6 -18	3.79 MB/s	1169 MB/s	53329873	25.16
zstd 1.5.6 -22	2.08 MB/s	1073 MB/s	52333880	24.69